Helen Frankenthaler

Last week Helen Frankenthaler's work was mentioned on the Baren Forum and it reminded me of the print I did about Ms. Frankenthaler.  It was for a Baren Exchange about someone who had been influential to your printmaking.  At the time I was heavily into her imagery and the methods she used to make her prints.  There had also been a fantastic show of her work at the Portland Art Museum.  They had the paintings she did with the print made from that image next to it.  Fantastic!

The print that I did had her work East and Beyond: 1973 which was a puzzle print, behind her.  In my work I attempted to duplicate that work by doing a small puzzle print just like hers, with the woodblock of her in the foreground.

That total image was then trimmed and adhered to a digital reproduction of her work on a ph neutral paper for that purpose.  Finally, her name was printed and the stamp with her image (also an inkjet print) attached.  That was probably the most fun I have had doing something that I had no idea what I was doing at the time, but it all turned out successfully.  The moral of the story is: Go for it! Experiment!  Have fun!  You will learn a lot and have a whale of a good time doing it!